My E Cigarette Tastes Burnt, What’s Wrong With It?

Thankfully it does not happen all that frequently, but it is annoying when it does – an off-putting burnt taste from your electronic cigarette.

Sometimes this aftertaste may also be slightly metallic and there are a number of reasons why you might be getting this unpleasant burnt taste.

The first factor to consider, although far from the most common, is the e-liquid.

If there’s something wrong with this, then that could be the cause of the problem.

Unfortunately not all e-liquids are of a high standard although as long as a reputable vendor supplies you, then you should not have this problem and if the e-liquid is not at fault, then it has to be another factor such as the atomizer.

Not a common problem – but may easily be rectified.

On very new atomizers or cartomizers, it’s possible that the unpleasant taste you are getting is actually from manufacturing residues such as coatings, machine oil or traces of adhesives left on the wick’s silica fibres.

If the e-cig’s consumables contains too much of these as is unfortunately sometimes the case, the e-liquid will absorb them leading to that unpleasant taste.

There are a few ways to get around this problem, one of the most effective being to blow air from the top and bottom ends of the cartomizer and rinse with alcohol before blowing again.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, if the atomizer is past its prime and needs replacing, then that could be another reason for the burnt taste.

Overuse can also be responsible as too many or perhaps too long consecutive puffs will have the effect of preventing the coil from cooling down.

The coil will therefore burn the wicks and this will produce that burnt taste.

Perhaps the two most common causes of that undesirable metallic or burnt taste is gunk building up on the atomizer coil and a dry wicking material.

The solution to the former problem is to clean it and to the second, to ensure that the supply of e-liquid is not running on empty.

Every time the cartridge or cartomizer gets dry, the coil will start burning the filler instead.

Finally it’s important not to ignore the burnt taste – it’s surprising how many people fail to take the simple steps we have mentioned above, are unable to get rid of the unpleasant tastes and end up ultimately ruining their e-cig as a result!

If this has happened, you may want to consider purchasing a new starter kit or vape pen and learn from your mistakes!

Hi. I’m Dan and I’ve been vaping since 2012. Prior to that, I was a 20-a-day smoker for over 10 years. I launched Vapor Cigarette in 2014 to review the limited range of vaping products available at the time, and to help other smokers who were thinking of switching to e cigarettes. Read more >